"Breaking Bad" fans, for a long time, have wondered how Skyler White (Anna Gunn) would react when the proverbial crap hit the fan -- when her husband's evil deeds came to light and his meth empire began to crumble. Would she cave in and turn her back on Walt (Bryan Cranston)? Or would she dig in and stand by her man?

In Sunday's episode, "Buried," we learned that she's sticking with her family. For now, at least.

Last week, Walt had his tense confrontation with Hank (Dean Norris) in a garage, of all places, and it didn't go so well. Hank delivered a vicious upper cut to Walt's noggin, and Walt shifted into Alpha-dog mode, warning Hank to "tread lightly."

This week, it was Skyler's turn for a showdown with Hank and she pretty much owned it -- refusing to crack and telling him absolutely nothing.

And then, later in the episode, it is Skyler who formulates a stave-off-the-cops strategy. When a dazed and totally drained Walt comes to after doing a face-plant on the cold tile floor of his bathroom, he suggests that he's ready to give himself up if Skyler promises to retain possession of the drug money and pass it on to their kids. That was his original benevolent intention, after all, before the body count grew and he turned into a murderous monster.

But Skyler, who for so long had been a victim of Walt's criminal ways, immediately vetoes that plan. After her meeting with Hank in the diner, she's not convinced that her DEA brother-in-law has anything more than circumstantial evidence.

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"You can't give yourself up without giving up the money," she tells Walt. "Maybe our best move is to stay quiet."

The key word here is "our." Skyler is making it clear that her No. 1 priority to save her family. She has become "Skysenberg," as some fans have dubbed her. And maybe, just maybe, she will be the reliable partner that Jesse (Aaron Paul) failed to be.

"Buried" is a tour de force for Emmy nominee Anna Gunn. She is absolutely fantastic in the diner get-together as she senses Hank's near-manic, overbearing desperation and quickly formulates a plan to flee his clutches by creating a public scene ("Am I under arrest?!"). And she's heartbreakingly effective in a tense confrontation with her sister, Marie (Betsy Brandt), who boldly tries to take away baby Holly -- for "protection" -- and fails.

Some quick thoughts:

-- God bless "Breaking Bad" for occasionally providing some comic relief amid all the tenseness. When Saul's two henchmen go to the storage locker to retrieve Walt's massive pile of cash, one of them just has to roll around in it first. "We're here to do a job," blurts out his disapproving partner, "not channel Scrooge McDuck."

Anna Gunn as Skyler White on "Breaking Bad." (Ursula Coyote/AMC)

-- It's telling that Skyler had to hear about the return of Walt's cancer from Hank, and not her husband, when the DEA agent says "I don't want that bastard running out the clock." And it's also telling that, when Skyler asks Walt about the cancer, he replies, "Doesn't that make you happy?"

-- The transformation of Todd (Jesse Plemons) into Walt's evil heir apparent seems to be complete. It's hard to believe that this is the same guy who played the goofy, good-hearted Landry on "Friday Night Lights."

-- Loved the vivid incongruities of the sequence involving Lydia (Laura Fraser) at the meth-lab massacre. Here she is, in high heels and a skirt, traipsing around the desert with a bunch of greasy thugs. And though she's directly involved in this murderous drug operation, she plugs her ears when the shooting starts and covers her eyes to avoid seeing the bloody carnage. A beautifully crafted -- and humorous -- scene. Bravo to director Michelle MacLaren.

-- It's interesting that this episode, directed by MacLaren, was dominated by women -- a rare occurrence for this testosterone-charged show. And it's probably no coincidence that the director took advantage of Gunn's height advantage over Norris in the diner scenes. Glaringly, she looked down on him and he seemed diminished in the moment.

-- Perhaps the best scene of the night was the tense confrontation between sisters Skyler and Marie in the White house. Though Skyler hardly uttered a word, Marie was able to piece together an entire criminal timeline simply by reading her sibling's facial expressions and got more out of Skyler than Hank ever could. A riveting sequence.

-- As great as "Breaking Bad" is, the show isn't without its crazy implausibilities. Was I the only one who found it hard to believe that a 50-something year-old man, afflicted with cancer, could spend hours toiling in the desert heat and digging that big of a hole in which to bury his humongous stash of cash?

-- Hank couldn't get Skyler to crack, but he may have a better shot with Jesse, who is clearly at the end of his rope. Will Jesse spill the beans in that interrogation room?

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